CCDD 070720 - Robo-Brawler

This is a classic example of a pure Mel design. Given the concept, the text box has basically zero flexibility, so the only available "knobs" are the power/toughness and mana cost.

CCDD 081717—Will Golem

Cool Card Design of the Day
8/17/2017 - The idea with Will Golem is that it's wicked powerful if you've got a ton of mana, but you've got to do every little thing to keep it running.

CCDD 022317—Eager Vassal

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/23/2017 - At first blush, this will look like a tamed Spellwild Ouphe, but its true purpose is to allow players to splash auras and combat tricks in a deck that would have trouble playing them otherwise.

CCDD 022217—Pneumatequine

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/22/2017 - A couple fairly obvious uses for energy in a future set.

CCDD 022117—Memory Jarhead

Cool Card Design of the Day
2/21/2017 - Memory Jar on a stick. But not Magus of the Jar.

The motivation for this was to make the second half of the jar an event you have to make happen, instead of it happening immediately. Which has upsides and downsides.

CCDD 012517—Automastodon

Cool Card Design of the Day
1/25/2017 - Here's a vehicle with revolt that can give you two artifacts for improvisation. I was only aiming for the first two, but the latter doesn't hurt.

CCDD 110816—Dormant Dominator

Cool Card Design of the Day
111/8/2016 - Working on a big post I care a lot about, but today's just not the day. Instead, more easy readin'. Top-down from the art, this card borrows tech from vehicles we can use for cards like Glint Hawk Idol and Gruul War Plow.

CCDD 100616—Kern, Silver Butler

Cool Card Design of the Day
10/6/2016 - I was exploring the idea of cycling expensive cards from your opening hand and came to the idea of getting them back at some specific point rather than just returning them to your deck. I don't believe that's a keywordable idea, but seems like a cool rare.

CCDD 100316—Enthusiasbot

Cool Card Design of the Day
10/3/2016 - Here's a creature that dearly wants you to equip or enchant it, boosts its stats with an instant, or put +1/+1 counters on it. This is the kind of carrot that allows us to make virtual vanilla creatures exciting, through potential.

CCDD 090215—Servitors

Cool Card Design of the Day
9/2/2015 - If Magic did go to Kaladesh, would it continue the Thopter token theme from Magic Origins? We've talked about how neat it is that the Kaladesh cards in Origins have an artifact theme almost entirely without artifact cards. My guess is that a Kaladesh set would include Thopter tokens, but could also include one or two other artifact creature tokens.

CCDD 081115—Cano Hornet

Cool Card Design of the Day
8/11/2015 - A simple Memnite / Ornithopter hybrid for a block set on Kaladesh.

CCDD 061815—Magcore Sentry & Geistbond Reaver

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/18/2015 - Here are a couple designs for Tesla: Design Challenge 061715—Automation that wouldn't translate well in plain text.

CCDD 080714—Pentapod

Cool Card Design of the Day
8/7/2014 - Pentapod's ability is like a flagbearer for discard (see: Coalition Honor Guard). Like Dodecapod, it is meant to combat discard, but rather than punish your opponent for making you discard the spell you added because of her discard, it is meant to actually protect the card's you're so desperate not to discard.

CCDD 091113—Akroan Horse

Cool Card Design of the Day
9/11/2013 - Here's a bit of a departure from CCDD's tried-and-true formula. Today, the Cool Card Design is an actual card, Theros' Akroan Horse. Yesterday, it was revealed and I was impressed.

Today, I'll explain why I like it so much and compare with my attempts to design to this trope.

SPOILER: